On May 28, I finally made it back to Spain after being in the US since December. There were a number of factors which made me stay stateside. First, in Spain, a strict limitation of movement between regions was still in effect. Essentially, people were forced to stay in their home cities and/or “comunidades” until the central government lifted this restriction of movement on May 10. This zonal confinement lasted for almost eight months. On top of this, each regional government of Spain implemented early evening curfews to reduce conglomerations of people in clubs, bars and restaurants. When I reached out to a few friends in Madrid in February about the prospect of returning, all of them advised that I stay in the US. The second factor strengthening the case to stay home was the fact that the roll-out of the vaccine in the US was months ahead of the roll-out in Spain. Weighing the option of returning to Spain without knowing whether I would be vaccinated by July and knowing fully that I would be vaccinated in April in the US, made my decision very easy.
Before leaving Washington on May 27, I was required to show a negative PCR test that could only be administered 72 hours before landing in Madrid. I found a Same Day Testing location in Arlington and the process was very simple and my results were emailed to me that afternoon. As well as needing a negative PCR test, Spain created a Spain Travel Health app that had to be filled out 48 hours before boarding one’s flight. At this time in late May, only residents of Spain were allowed to return to the country. I had to demonstrate that I was a resident of Spain even though I was getting into the country on my US passport. This ended up being crucial because when I approached the policeman at Customs in Barajas airport on May 28, I gave him my US passport and the first thing he said was “¿Qué haces?”, (“What are you doing?”). Clearly he had not seen a US passport all day, if not all week! I then told him I was a Spanish resident and showed my ID card and, thankfully, he waved me through to the baggage area. This was the first time in over twenty five years of travel to Spain that I had an issue at Customs. It really elucidates the seriousness with which Spain was taking its border security during the pandemic.
After spending just a few days in Madrid, I caught the AVE train to Sevilla where I decided to spend the entire month of June. One of my great friends, Nico, whom I met at Middlebury College while pursuing our Master’s degrees in Spanish, lives in Sevilla. His brother, who was back in the US, was very kind to rent me his apartment in the center of the city for the month. I have visited Sevilla numerous times and my purpose for this trip was not so much about spending time there but rather, my goal for this trip was to go to many different towns outside of Sevilla. Luckily, Nico was on board for almost all of these excursions and I would ride co-pilot while he took the wheel crossing all over Andalucía.
Of all the trips we made, the most special for me was a weekend trip to Grazalema. Grazalema is one of the famed “pueblos blancos”, whitewashed villages that are nestled in the mountains above the coasts of Cádiz,Tarifa, Marbella and Málaga. Nico’s family has a home there and he, his father and I made the trip together. The town itself has a history going back to before the Romans but the Moors are the culture who really are responsible for the iconic architecture of the pueblos blancos. Much of our time there was spent walking the village and taking hikes through the mountains that surround Grazalema. A deeply memorable experience was meeting Carmen, a family friend of Nico, who has spent the last two years refurbishing a 300 year old home in the center of town. The exposed beams throughout the house from the early 1800s and her family’s collection of period religious artwork and iconography decorating the walls transported me back to a bygone era of Spain where my imagination wandered, pondering a distant, more formal and noble time, all over cold glasses of beer that we shared on the terrace.
Sitting high in the mountains brought a much needed reprieve from the scorching heat of Sevilla. If the daytime temperature in Sevilla was 34 c. (93 f.), the temperature in Grazalema would be a full 8 degrees cooler, 26 c. (79 f.). And by 11:00 pm, a light jacket was a required clothing item for the cool temperatures. What is also very interesting is that the town of Grazalema gets more rain per year than any other community in Spain. You wouldn’t think this for being so far south in the country. We usually associate heavy rainfall with Galicia in the northwest but Grazalema has a unique microclimate. The mountains of the Sierra de Grazalema are the first mountains the winds off the Atlantic encounter. The winds experience a rapid cooling effect upon hitting the mountains after having heated up crossing the dry flatlands of western Andalucía. Inevitably clouds form quickly and dump rains here mostly in fall, winter and spring. Luckily our visit was in the summer and while we saw a few clouds, we did not get a drop of rain.
Another important box I checked during this trip to Sevilla was finally getting to explore the area south of Sevilla, the Delta of the Guadalquivir river. On two separate occasions, Nico and I made trips through the river basin, once following its western bank down to a remote town called Isla Mayor and the other time following its eastern bank all the way down to Sanlucar de Barrameda where the Guadalquivir empties into the Atlantic Ocean. On both trips, I was struck by the rural ruggedness of life along the river. Population is very sparse and the few people who live in the villages along the river mainly work in agriculture. I was reminded of the drives I have taken through the Mississippi Delta where life on the river can be slow, rustic and mysterious. And yet also like the Mississippi Delta, there is an abundance of wildlife and this region of Andalucia boasts one of Europe’s most important and largest natural reserves, Doñana National Park. Thousands of European and African migratory birds call Doñana home during part of the year and the one bird which is most famous is the flamingo. We saw hundreds of flamingos as we meandered our way down to Sanlucar. Eagles, deer, badgers, wild boar and lynx also live inside of the park. As we approached Sanlucar, part of the dirt road we had been traveling for two hours actually crossed into the park and we found ourselves twisting along the dirt roadway under the famous pine trees of Doñana that have a unique, mushroom cap-like shape. My plan is to get back to Doñana soon and take a full day safari that is offered to tourists.
As I type this entry I am in Gijón, on the north coast of Asturias and it really feels like I am in another country, much the same way an American would feel from going from the lower marshes of Louisiana to the cold, green and rocky coast of Maine. Call me biased but I firmly believe that Spain has a geographical and cultural diversity that is superior to any other country in Europe. My month in Andalucía has only reinforced my prejudice!